Get marketing news you'll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
No amount of fake blood, crawling spiders, and knife-wielding maniacs is more frightening than seeing Halloween candy at Walgreens in July.
And yet, Wieden+Kennedy went all in on #spookyszn this summer to promote the new Ford F-150 Raptor R, a supposed beast of a machine with 700 horsepower made for “extreme off-roading,” according to the press release.
Like Frankenstein, Marketing Brew resurrected our Mood Board series to speak with Eric Helin and Stuart Jennings, creative directors at W+K who’ve worked on Ford’s creative since the agency got the account in 2018.
The brief: “Humans love to scare themselves on purpose, right? Whether it’s roller-coasters or horror movies, there’s something incredible about that. This vehicle is kind of a $110,000 version of that idea,” Jennings told Marketing Brew. It helped that Ford was also looking for something a little different than what they were used to.
Get it? The truck is scary fast. Ultimately, though, the spot doesn’t entirely avoid the cliches of your average truck-and-nature commercial.
But, at least it does so in a way that would make Alice Cooper blush.
Inspiration: Mixing in the desert dirt of Mad Max and the chrome killer from Christine, the team relied on the well-worn aesthetic of horror films from the late ’70s and early ’80s, a time when “Americans were a little more obsessed with vehicles,” Jennings said. That was combined with a contemporary, oversaturated look inspired by films like Mandy.
Christine/Mad Max
Blink and you’ll miss it: At one point, there appears to be a wolf in the truck, a ghoul palming the driver-side mirror, and what we would describe as a “being” standing in the mist. Is it…an alien??? “I don’t think we want that to be defined,” Jennings said.
Media: Like any self-respecting horror flick, it’s best enjoyed in theaters—the ad is playing nationally in theaters ahead of Jordan Peele’s widely hyped film Nope. That wasn’t planned until after the idea was sold, but it was “kind of a happy accident,” Jennings joked.
Rated R: Alright, maybe this one is self-explanatory, but the warning at the start that “persons under 16 not admitted without a learner’s permit” is pretty cute.
Ford